196 
OF PLANTS. 
duce the embryos of the leaves and flowers in one year, 
and bring them to perfection the following. There is a 
winter therefore to be gotten over. Now what we are to re¬ 
mark is, how nature has prepared for the trials and sever¬ 
ities of that season. These tender embryos are, in the 
first place, wrapped up with a compactness which no art 
can imitate; in which state they compose what we call the 
bud. This is not all. The bud itself is enclosed in scales; 
which scales are formed from the remains of past leaves, 
and the rudiments of future ones. Neither is this the 
whole. In the coldest climates a third preservative is ad¬ 
ded, by the bud having a coat of gum or resin, which, being 
congealed, resists the strongest frosts. On the approach 
of warm weather, this gum is softened, and ceases to be a 
hinderance to the expansion of the leaves and flowers. Al] 
this care is part of that system of provisions, which has for 
its object and consummation the production and perfecting 
of the seeds. 
The seeds themselves are packed up in a capsule, a 
vessel composed of coats, [PI. XXXIV. fig. 1,] which, 
compared with the rest of the flower, are strong and tough. 
From this vessel projects a tube, through which tube the 
farina, or some subtile fecundating effluvium that issues 
from it, is admitted to the seed. And here also occurs a 
mechanical variety, accommodated to the different circum¬ 
stances under which the same purpose is to be accomplish¬ 
ed. In flowers which are erect, the pistil is shorter than 
the stamina; [PI. XXXIV. fig. 2,] and the pollen, shed 
from the antherse into the cup of the flower, is caught in 
its descent by the head of the pistil, called the stigma. But 
how is this managed ■when the flowers hang down, (as 
does the crown imperial, for instance,) and in which posi¬ 
tion the farina, in its fall, would be carried from the stig¬ 
ma, and not towards it ? The relative length of the parts 
is now inverted. The pistil in these flowers is usually 
longer instead of shorter than the stamina, [PI. XXXIV. 
fig. 3,] that its protruding summit may receive the pollen 
as it drops to the ground. In some cases (as in the nigel - 
la,) [PI. XXXIV. fig. 4,] where the shafts of the pistils 
or styles are disproportionably long, they bend down their 
extremities upon the antherae, that the necessary approxi 
mation may be effected.* 
* Amongst the various means which nature has provided for the pur¬ 
pose of assisting the impregnation of plants, that afforded by the agency 
of insects is not one of the least. In the spring and summer month 
